In Plato's Republic the Allegory of the Cave is a story, which is very similar to the storyline of Matrix. In the Allegory of the Cave, there are men who are prisoners in a cave that have been there their whole life. They face a wall and only see shadows from the objects, such as men or materials, crossing in back of them. Then one of the prisoners is freed and able to walk around. Once this ex-prisoner left the cave his eyes would ache from never seeing sunlight, but he would adjust. He would understand that there was another world out there, besides the shadows reflected on the wall. .
Neo is a computer hacker in the real world. He is taken out of this real world and into the Matrix, where he learns the Matrix is a computer simulation. Neo discovers that he has been a prisoner, stuck in a container, his whole life. .
Neo resembles the ex-prisoner in Plato's Republic because for one they are both prisoners their whole life. They both also walked outside of the cave. "The Allegory of the Cave illustrates the road we must take from shadowy images to the true Ideas behind all natural phenomena- (Price 57). Neo chooses to stay in the Matrix, in doing so he awakens from his vat. Neo has never used his eyes before and that is why they hurt. .
In the Matrix reflected images are frequently seen. Neo is often reflected in Morpheus sunglasses and in various metallic surfaces. "A common theme in Plato is how we mostly deal with images in life-(Ross). .
The shadows on the wall of the Cave are images of puppets, which are images of the Forms. The freed prisoner, from the Allegory of the Cave, leaves the Cave and discovers the world of forms. When Neo is in the training program, Mouse puts him into a scene where a woman in a red dress walks. He is attracted to her, but it is computerized. She is not a real woman; she is a puppet for the training program to distract Neo.
In the scene at the Oracle's place with the young boy who states to Neo " there is no spoon- falls under Plato's theory of the Forms.
